Thursday, April 10, 2014

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh says “CBS has just declared war on the heartland of America” by hiring comedian Stephen Colbert to replace David Letterman on “Late Show.”

“No longer is comedy going to be a covert assault on traditional American values, conservatives,” Limbaugh said Thursday. “Now it’s just wide out in the open.”

“What this hire means is a redefinition of what is ‘funny’ and a redefinition of what is comedy, and they’re blowing up the 11:30 format under the guise that the world’s changing and people don’t want the kind of comedy that Carson gave us or even Letterman,” he continued.

Americans will work until April 21st to pay taxes before they can work for their family. Maryland taxpayers have to work an extra week until April 28 , 7th worst in the country., Connecticut and New Jersey are tied for first and worst place.

According to CBS News, roughly half of U.S. families don't have a single dime set aside for retirement. While millions of Americans put part of their income into an employer-sponsored 401(k), IRA or other retirement account, millions more find it hard or impossible to save because of their precarious situations — unemployment, stagnant income, impossible health costs or other factors’

Washington Times reports that Billionaire George Soros hopes the U.S. goes to pot and is using his money to drive it there. Soros has spent t least $80 million on the legalization effort since 1994. The late chairman of Progressive Insurance, an unabashed pot smoker himself has put more than $40 million into the effort to influence local debates..

Outmanned and outgunned, local law enforcement officers are alarmed by the drug and human trafficking, prostitution, kidnapping and money laundering that Mexican drug cartels are conducting in the U.S. far from the border.

U.S. sheriffs say that securing the border is a growing concern to law enforcement agencies throughout the country, not just those near the U.S.-Mexico boundary.

“If we fail to secure our borders, then every sheriff in America will become a border sheriff,” said Sam Page, sheriff of Rockingham County, N.C. “We’re only a two-day drive from the border and have already seen the death and violence that illegal crossings brings into our community.”

The standoff between a Nevada rancher and the U.S. government escalated Wednesday when protesters confronted federal agents tasked with the chore of rounding up approximately 900 “trespass cattle.”

The confrontation, captured on video, resulted in one protester, the rancher’s son, being hit with a stun gun while another, the rancher’s daughter, was pushed to the ground. One woman said federal officials struck her with their vehicle.

“You have no right to be here!” a female protester shouted at agents.

One of agents warned the demonstrators to back up or they would get bitten by their K9 unit.

BERLIN — State lawmakers this week passed legislation that will decriminalize simple possession of marijuana, making it an offense akin to a traffic citation, but the jury is still out on the possible repercussions down on the street level.

The Maryland General Assembly this week passed legislation that will make the possession of less than 10 grams of marijuana a civil offense with a citation that can be paid by an offender without the threat of court appearances, jail time, probation and a permanent mark on his or her record. The bill allows for a fine of $100 for a first offense, $200 for a second offense and $500 for a third offense.

Basically, those found in possession of small amounts of marijuana will be issued a citation similar to a traffic ticket and will not be required to appear in court. Proponents of the bill suggest the time has come to take the next step in an eventual legalization of marijuana in Maryland, following the lead of other progressive states. Opponents, however, feel the bill was pushed through at the 11thhour on Monday with little regard for its possible repercussions. At any rate, the issue was certainly a galvanizing one during the session and most are waiting for the potential fallout.

The price of health insurance premiums on plans purchased outside of the federal and state exchanges are much higher than expected, a survey of brokers found.

A proprietary survey of 148 brokers conducted by Morgan Stanley analysts revealed the largest acceleration in small and individual group rates in the survey’s history, Forbes contributor Scott Gottlieb of the conservative American Enterprise Institute first noted.

Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert will be heading over to CBS to replace David Letterman when "The Late Show” host retires in 2015.

Colbert has signed a five-year agreement with CBS, according to an official announcement from the network.

“Stephen Colbert is one of the most inventive and respected forces on television,” President of CBS Les Moonves said in a statement. “David Letterman’s legacy and accomplishments are an incredible source of pride for all of us here, and today’s announcement speaks to our commitment of upholding what he established for CBS in late night.”MORE

The Obama administration has chosen a novel way to comply with a 2011 arms control treaty with Russia. The deal calls for the United States to reduce the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles available to launch by 50. The U.S. currently has 450 land based nuclear missiles at three Air Force Bases. The Pentagon will remove 50 of them from their launch silos, but keep the silos open and ready. The missiles would be kept in storage and maintained. The so-called warm condition means the missiles could be returned to active status in a hurry. The warm silos come at a cost. It means steeper reductions in the numbers of submarine-launched nuclear missiles. Those won't be cut until 2018.

The Air Force does a 180 on some early retirement applications. It says airmen who applied for early retirement but were rejected can retire if they still want. These airmen received early retirement offers in error. The service did not intend to make the offer to them. It told the airmen about the mistake and withdrew the offers. Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower, Personnel and Services Lt. Gen. Sam Cox says the Air Force regrets any potential hardship it created. The Air Force says it has reviewed more than 5,000 applications. Only 20 were wrongly processed.

Dr. John Townsend, author of more than 25 books, including the 2-million best seller, Boundaries, will be in Salisbury on Saturday, April 26 to present a day long seminar at Asbury United Methodist Church. Registration is $35 and $ 20 for pastors.

Townsend is a clinical psychologist, leadership coach, marriage & family therapist, speaker and leadership consultant. He serves as a co-host on the Nationally syndicated radio show, “New Life LIVE,” heard locally at 1PM weekdays on WOLC Joy 102.5FM. The radio show is heard in 180 markets nationally and boasts an audience of 3 million regular listeners.

Dr. Townsend’s topic will be based on his best selling series of books, Boundaries. “Implementing appropriate boundaries can improve relationships, reduce stress and guilt, increase your ability to say, ‘no,’ and enable you to deal with controlling people in a loving way, says Dr. Townsend. The seminar will be held from 9AM – 3:30 PM with an hour lunch break. Dr. Townsend’s books will be available for sale, and he will autograph them at the seminar.

Townsend will be traveling from his base in Orange County, CA, thanks to generous sponsors who are underwriting his $ 10,000 fee: The Country House, Holloway Funeral Home, WOLC, Avery Hall Insurance, Peninsula Eye Center, Riverside & Milford Street Pharmacies, Tom & Beth Hershey, Shore Bank. John & Shelly Marshall, Marlene Rinnier & Carol Brence. One sponsor said, “This is so needed in our community and in our families. When relationships are struggling, we all need practical do’s and don’ts to improve the situation. John will guide us with knowledge, compassion and biblical principles. ”

Over 100 people are already registered. For registration or a brochure, email SalisburyBoundaries@gmail.com or call Asbury Church at 410-749-2131. By mail, make a check to Asbury UMW Boundaries and mail to 1401 Camden Ave. Salisbury, MD 21801.

A House committee voted Thursday to hold Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress, as Republicans escalated their bid to "get to the bottom" of the former IRS official's role in the political targeting scandal.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted 21-12 to hold Lerner in contempt. The party-line vote followed hours of heated debate on the committee.

The contempt measure heads next to the House floor. House Speaker John Boehner predicted earlier this week that unless Lerner agrees to cooperate, the full House will support contempt -- from there, the case would likely head to the courts.

Visit the Centre to enjoy the fun and very creative display of music-themed bras. Bras for a Cause is an annual fundraiser to promote breast cancer awareness and to help your local non-profit breast cancer support organization, Women Supporting Women. Bras will be available for public viewing and voting ($1 per vote) at the Centre at Salisbury in the JC Penney Court. The dates for public viewingare Thursday, May 1 at 5 PM through Sunday, June 1. Please vote for BCJ's OP "BRA" as your choice for 2014 Bra for a Cause (group entry). Thank you very much for your consideration!

If you cannot vote at the mall, you can send a donation to Women supporting Women, 1320 Belmont Avenue, Suite 402, Salisbury,Maryland21804.

Two days after the 2014 Session of the Maryland General Assembly ended, groups supporting an increase in the state's cigarette tax are thinking about next year.

Members of Maryland Health Care for All and the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids held a news conference in Annapolis today asking incumbent lawmakers and challengers running for the Maryland General Assembly to sign a pledge, promising they'll vote for a $1 increase in the state's cigarette tax if elected.

The tax was last increased in the special legislative session of 2007. It currently stands at $2-per pack of cigarettes.MORE

Failure to teach students even basic theory behind how computer technology works has several implications -- none of them positive. That’s the motivation behind a new push to boost computer learning in public schools.

Would it surprise you to know that most schools don’t teach computer science—not even the basics? It should, especially given that there will be about 1 million more U.S. jobs in the tech sector in the next decade than computer science graduates to fill them, according to Code.org, a nonprofit launched last year to promote computer science in schools.

One year ago this week, Alexander Heit's was in mid-sentence with his final text. Before he could even send the text, the 22-year-old University of Northern Colorado student drifted into oncoming traffic, jerked the steering wheel and went off the road, rolling his car.

Heit died shortly after the crash, but his parents and police are hoping the photo of the mundane text on his iPhone will serve as a stark reminder to drivers.

Nearly 80 U.S. sailors are seeking $1 billion from the Tokyo utility that operates the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, alleging the company lied about the high level of radiation in the area where they were carrying out a humanitarian mission after a tsunami that touched off a nuclear crisis three years ago.

A lawsuit filed in federal court in San Diego contends that Tokyo Electric Power repeatedly said there was no danger to the crew when they were actually being blanketed with radiation that has since led to dozens of cancer cases and a child being born with birth defects, the Orange County Registerreported Monday.

Lest you think the phrase "death of the middle class" is hyperbole, please examine these two charts, keeping in mind the middle class by definition must be in the middle of income/wealth distribution--conventionally, between 40% and 80%, i.e. the 40% between the bottom 40% and the top 20%.

"Engineering Evil" is a documentary recently shown on the Military History channel. It's a story of Nazi Germany's murder campaign before and during World War II. According to some estimates, 16 million Jews and other people died at the hands of Nazis (http://tinyurl.com/6duny9).

Though the Holocaust ranks high among the great human tragedies, most people never consider the most important question: How did Adolf Hitler and the Nazis gain the power that they needed to commit such horror? Focusing solely on the evil of the Holocaust won't get us very far toward the goal of the Jewish slogan "Never Again."

When Hitler came to power, he inherited decades of political consolidation by Otto von Bismarck and later the Weimar Republic that had weakened the political power of local jurisdictions. Through the Enabling Act (1933), whose formal name was "A Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich," Hitler gained the power to enact laws with neither the involvement nor the approval of the Reichstag, Germany's parliament. The Enabling Act destroyed any remaining local autonomy. The bottom line is that it was decent Germans who made Hitler's terror possible — Germans who would have never supported his territorial designs and atrocities.

LAS VEGAS (CBS Las Vegas/AP) — Nevada’s governor is criticizing a federal cattle roundup and what he calls “intimidation” in a dispute with a rancher who claims longstanding grazing rights on open range outside Las Vegas.

Federal Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service officials didn’t immediately respond Wednesday to Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval’s call for the BLM to “reconsider its approach.”

Sandoval says he’s most offended that federal officials have tried to corral people protesting the roundup into a “First Amendment area.”

My Salisbury district office will be hosting a College and Service Academy Resource Event on Wednesday, April 23, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at Washington High School in Princess Anne, Md. The event is for all 8th-graders and high school students on the lower Eastern Shore, and their parents. Please listen to the following announcement for more details.

Former NYPD detective Bo Dietl told Fox News on Tuesday the Rev. Al Sharpton was known as "the fat rat" — and that the MSNBC host had likely been turned into an FBI informer after he was filmed allegedly trying to buy cocaine.

Host Sean Hannity showed a video, first aired by HBO in 1983, of the civil rights activist apparently attempting to buy kilos of the drug from an undercover FBI agent.

Sharpton admitted that he had cooperated with an FBI investigation into New York’s Genovese crime family, but he denied being paid to snitch on the mob. Dietl, however, said it was well known that Sharpton was helping the FBI.

"There was a lot of involvement with the music industry at that time that Al was involved in," Dietl said. "People I knew from East Harlem, everyone on the streets at that time, knew he was an informant. We used to call him the fat rat."

The plot goes that Pocahontas, the beautiful daughter of Chief Powhatan, saves English adventurer John Smith from execution when British relations with the "savages" in the New World turned sour. Pocahontas even starts a romance with Smith, and the two almost sail away to Britain together at the end of the film.

Narrative: On 8 April 2014 at 11:24 AM a deputy from the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office began investigating a fraud perpetrated against a resident of Salisbury. In this incident, a subject claiming to be an “attorney” called the victim and informed him that his grandson had just been involved in an accident in New York and was facing manslaughter charges. The caller advised that the only way to stop these proceedings was for $700.00 to be wired via Western Union for the grandson’s bond. The victim in this case wired the money believing his grandson was in this predicament. The “attorney” then recontacted the victim informing him that additional money was needed to pay for another victim’s medical bills as a result of the accident. It was at this point that the victim discovered that his grandson was fine and in another state.

The Sheriff’s Office is currently investigating this crime. At this time we would like to remind all of our citizens to be aware of these types of scams and to be absolutely positive who they are dealing with before they make and financial transactions via wire or any other electronic means.

Narrative: On 8 April 2014 at 1:00 PM a deputy arrested Stephen Wilson in connection with a theft he reportedly committed the previous day. In this incident, Wilson stands accused of stealing jewelry from a residence where he had been hired to do some handy work.

Wilson was released on Personal Recognizance by the District Court Commissioner.

Charges:Theft under $1,000.00

*********************************************************************************Incident:Possession of Marijuana

Date of Incident:9 April 2014

Location:Booth Street at West Road, Salisbury, MD

Suspect:1. Carl Warner Brown, 57, Salisbury, MD

Carl Brown

2. Diontray J. Sherwood, 28, Salisbury, MD

Diontray Sherwood

Narrative: On 9 April 2014 at 2:59 PM a deputy stopped a vehicle operated by Carl Brown of Salisbury after discovering that Brown was operating a vehicle with an expired registration plate. Upon making contact with Brown and his passenger, Diontray Sherwood, the deputy detected the odor of marijuana which prompted the deputy to search the vehicle. During the search the deputy recovered marijuana packaged in four separate baggies.

The deputy placed both Brown and Sherwood under arrest and transported them to the Central Booking Unit. Following the initial appearance, the Commissioner released Brown on unsecured bond while detaining Sherwood in the Detention Center in lieu of $15,000.00 bond.

I had the pleasure of a visit from my Son yesterday who lives in Arlington, Virginia. When lunch time rolled around we decided to go to the Cellar Door in Downtown Salisbury and it was just fantastic. We both had their Club Sandwich and I have to say, for a "samich" it was incredible. We also enjoyed their soft pretzel and the mustard sauce, OVER THE TOP GOOD! The atmosphere was extremely comfortable. The service was very professional and our glasses never went empty. Without any doubt, this is the GO TO place to enjoy lunch in Salisbury.

The Town of Snow Hill invites you to "Easter in Snow Hill".....a day of fun for the whole family!

The day starts off with a scavenger hunt at the Julia A. Purnell Museum at 10:00am followed by an Easter egg hunt at Sturgis Park at 11:00am. The fun continues at the Old Fire House with a puppet show by the Blue Sky Puppet Theater at 1:30pm. Other activities include an Easter Bonnet contest, photos with the Easter Bunny, Sidewalk Art, Easter Egg Painting and a Special Lunch Treat!

There is no charge for this event but please take the opportunity to check out Easter specials at local businesses while you are there!

For more information contact the Town of Snow Hill at (410)632-2080 or visit their website at www.snowhillmd.com

In a two-part series Thursday and Friday, retired auditor Charles Hayward (full bio below) delves into the problems that led to a disastrous launch of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange in fall 2013. Among the chief failings of state leadership: not addressing serious red flags when there may have been enough time to fix the root causes; not appreciating the monumental tasks assigned to limited resources; and not selecting one IT expert to take leadership on the website’s development. He writes that by September 2013, project control was lost, a perfect storm had materialized, and officials crossed their fingers, hoping for a miracle at launch. As the smoke clears, taxpayers will underwrite hundreds of millions wasted.

Whenever ineffective planning, poor judgment and lousy communication intersect with really bad technology in a large-scale, high profile, IT development project, a “perfect storm” of catastrophic failure is the predictable result.

Studies of IT software-development failures show the deadliest of all risks for large software projects is the“big bang” release—like the one the state of Maryland chose to implement in 2011 via its Health Benefits Exchange when it finalized plans to launch, all at once, a versatile, multi-purpose Health Information Exchange website.MORE

A new poll conducted by a Democratic pollster is warning of potential impending disaster for Democrats in this year's midterm elections because of a familiar problem — diminished turnout among voters on whom they are reliant.

The Washington Post's Greg Sargent got an early look at the poll, which was conducted by Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg of Democracy Corps for Women’s Voices Women Vote. The poll found that voters in the so-called "Rising American Electorate" — unmarried women, minorities, and younger voters — are much less likely to vote this year than in 2012.

Even as the IRS faces growing heat over Lois G. Lerner and the tea party targeting scandal, a government watchdog said Wednesday it’s pursuing cases against three other tax agency employees and offices suspected of illegal political activity in support of President Obama and fellow Democrats.

In one case the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates federal employees who conduct politics on government time, said it was “commonplace” in a Dallas IRS office for employees to have pro-Obama screensavers on their computers, and to have campaign-style buttons and stickers at their office.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Michele Leonhart, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), repeatedly criticized the Obama administration at a hearing Wednesday on the DEA’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

In a memo released in July 2013, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it would not interfere with the effective implementation of laws regulating the cultivation and sale of marijuana for adults in Colorado and Washington. When asked by Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) during a Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies subcommittee hearing whether the Obama administration’s tolerant views toward legal marijuana had affected morale at the DEA, which is a branch of the DOJ, Leonhart replied that “our agents are fighting back against those messages. It makes us fight harder.” She had earlier criticized the DOJ for a perceived delay in issuing a response to Washington and Colorado’s new laws, claiming there was “a lot of confusion in those 296 days.”

ACCOMACK COUNTY, Va. — The corn was harvested, and the field was a dirty sort of brown. Deborah Clark would think about that later, how at a different time of year she wouldn’t have seen anything until it was too late.

A friend had come over to her house in Parksley, Va., once the kids from Clark’s living-room day care went home. He left about 10:30 that Monday evening, but a few minutes later knocked on her door again. “Hey,” he told her. “That house across the field is on fire.”

She knew which one he was talking about. It had been a nice house once: two-stories, white paint. But now it was empty and it had a peeled, beaten look to it. It had been a long time since anyone lived there, so she couldn’t think of how it could have caught on fire — except that it was so dry that maybe the weather had something to do with it.

Two Dayton teens are facing felony charges for allegedly attacking a homeless man and robbing him of $3 during the so-called “Knockout Game.”

The attacked happened March 7 in an alley near the Stivers School of the Arts on East Fifth Street, where the teens are students. Dayton police were alerted when a teacher at the school saw a video of the attack on a student’s cell phone, recorded it on her phone and reported it to administrators. From there, detectives were able to track down the two teens Monday, said Det. Nathan Curley of the Dayton police’s east patrol division.

“The kids admitted they started out by playing the ‘Knockout Game,’” Curley said. “That’s where you run up behind a victim who is not paying attention and you sucker-punch them, and try to knock them out.”

I lived in Salisbury area for almost 40 years until my wife and I retired and moved to Florida about 18 years ago. Having spent that much time there and being involved quite often in Salisbury happenings, I am still very interested in keeping up, as they say. I admit I do check the Daily Times almost every day but only once to read the obits. In turn I proceed to SbyNews numerous times and have been doing so for many years now. As a displaced Salisburian, I want to thank you for the time and energy that you put forth to keep me informed. I do not always agree w/ you but that is why Bryers makes chocolate & vanilla. For my sake and others like myself I want to say thank you and please continue to be the Hymie Pressman of the Eastern Shore.

College costs loom large in the parental mind. According to a 2013 report by Sallie Mae, half of parents are putting away money for their kids' education. Those who aren't are fretting about it, saying that they feel "frustrated," "overwhelmed" and "annoyed" when they think about college savings. But most parents will deal with an even larger kid-related expense long before college, and it's a cost that very few of them are as prepared for. That expense is day care.

A report last fall by Child Care Aware America, a national organization of child-care resource and referral agencies, found that the annual cost of day care for an infant exceeds the average cost of in-state tuition and fees at public colleges in 31 states. The biggest gap is in New York, where day care will set you back nearly 15 grand, but in-state college tuition is only $6,500 -- a difference of over $8,000. Massachusetts, Maryland, Colorado and Oregon also have large gaps, driven primarily by the high cost of day care in those states. At the other end of the spectrum is South Carolina, where in-state tuition is higher than the cost of day care by about $4,000 a year.MORE

SYNOPSIS: Officers responded for a reported stabbing in the area of Parke Avenue @ King Street. Upon arrival, the victim reported that he was approached by the suspect, with whom he was familiar, in a vehicle. During that encounter, the suspect produced a knife, held it to the victim’s throat and demanded the victim’s money, which the victim did surrender. The suspect then demanded medication that he heard rattling in the victim’s pocket. A struggle ensued and the suspect’s vehicle began moving. The victim was able to fall free after being dragged for approximately 50 yards. The suspect then fled the scene. Officers were provided a vehicle and suspect description, which an officer had observed nearby while responding to the call. The officer was familiar with the suspect and his vehicle from prior contact and knew him to be Tyler Gaskins. Officers began checking at known locations for Gaskins and located his vehicle at a residence. Gaskins had fled from that residence prior to the officer’s arrival. Gaskins was tracked through the woods from the Siloam Road area to Cherry Hill, where Gaskins was taken into custody. The Fruitland Police Department received assistance from The Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office Patrol and K9 as well as MSP Aviation.

New IRS emails released by the House Oversight Committee show staff working for Democratic Ranking Member Elijah Cummings communicated with the IRS multiple times between 2012 and 2013 about voter fraud prevention group True the Vote. True the Vote was targeted by the IRS after applying for tax exempt status more than two years ago. Further, information shows the IRS and Cummings' staff asked for nearly identical information from True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht about her organization, indicating coordination and improper sharing of confidential taxpayer information.

Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa, along with five Subcommittee Chairmen are demanding Cummings provide an explanation for the staff inquiries to the IRS about True the Vote and for his denial that his staff ever contacted the IRS about the group.

“Although you have previously denied that your staff made inquiries to the IRS about conservative organization True the Vote that may have led to additional agency scrutiny, communication records between your staff and IRS officials – which you did not disclose to Majority Members or staff – indicates otherwise,” the letter to Cummings states. “As the Committee is scheduled to consider a resolution holding Ms. Lerner, a participant in responding to your communications that you failed to disclose, in contempt of Congress, you have an obligation to fully explain your staff’s undisclosed contacts with the IRS.”

The Navy says it has found a way to convert seawater into fuel. Vice Adm. Phil Hart Cullom calls the breakthrough a "game-changer" because it will let ships and aircraft stay longer at sea or in the air. It also weans them away from outside sources of energy.

The Naval Research Laboratory says its new technology can extract carbon dioxide and hydrogen from seawater at once. Then a reactor system converts the gases to liquid hydrocarbons. Scientists say it's the first technique with the potential to scale commercially. They have tested it on a radio-controlled model plane.

You’d think that someone who put his name on a book about immigration would at least know a little bit about it. I’m afraid that may not be the case, if Jeb Bush’s recent comments on illegal immigration are any indication.

His “act of love” comment is what’s gotten everyone’s attention, and I agree with Ramesh’s take on the Corner to the extent that there’s some truth to what Jeb said:

Yes, they broke the law, but it’s not a felony; it’s an act of love. It’s an act of commitment to your family. I honestly think that this is a different kind of crime.

Salisbury, MD … Dr. Barbara Dezmon will be the guest speaker for an NAACP special seminar on Common Core on Tuesday April 22, 2014 at 6:30 pm. This meeting will be held at Chipman Cultural Center, 325 Broad Street, Salisbury, MD.

For additional information about this meeting, contact Mary Ashanti, President, at 410-543-4187.

THE PINEAPPLE I thought this fascinating... Perhaps you will too. I had no idea pineapple at the grocery store had such a fascinating "life story".

The pineapple is a member of the bromeliad family. It is extremely rare that bromeliads produce edible fruit. The pineapple is the only available edible bromeliad today.

It is a multiple fruit. One pineapple is actually made up of dozens of individual floweret's that grow together to form the entire fruit. Each scale on a pineapple is evidence of a separate flower.

Pineapples stop ripening the minute they are picked. No special way of storing them will help ripen them further. Colour is relatively unimportant in determining ripeness. Choose your pineapple by smell. If it smells fresh, tropical and sweet, it will be a good fruit.

The more scales on the pineapple, the sweeter and juicier the taste. After you cut off the top, you can plant it. It should grow much like a sweet potato will.

Biodegradable waste, such as food scraps and yard clippings comprise about 25 percent of landfills. Compost at home and nurture your garden.

2. Reduce your carbon footprint.

Leaving your car at home twice a week can cut greenhouse gas emissions by 1,600 pounds per year! To reduce your carbon footprint, try to combine your errands and shopping trips so that you do not have to make as many trips in your car. If you commute to work, ask if you can work from home once in a while, and you'll reduce air pollution, traffic congestion, and save money. EPA has great info on reducing greenhouse gases on the road.